Craft Tag

Hello everyone, hope you’re all keeping safe and taking care of yourselves. The last couple of weeks since my last post has been, well, sort of strange. Since the lockdown has extended, I have been trying to stick to some sort of routine as I’m finding myself getting a bit worked up not being able to go out. We’ve got a garden and I’ve spent a lot of my time gardening and hanging outside now that the weather has been proper beaut. I do want to buy some flowers and large planters so that I can get started with making the garden looking prettier for the summer time. 🌼🌸🌳 We’ve also been talking about getting another barbecue as a our current one is looking slightly sad and rusty! You can also get mini pizza ovens that go on top of your barbecue… I know, a game changer right?!

I finished reading The Testaments by Margaret Atwood the other night and I have to say that although the book itself was pretty gripping, I found the narrative to be quite repetitive at times. Not like I’m giving anything away, but in my opinion I really enjoyed The Handmaid’s Tale more than The Testaments. I suppose I had pretty high hopes for it but unfortunately it doesn’t cut it for me. The next book on my reading list is In A Different Key: The Story of Autismby John Donavan and Caren Zucker. The book looks at the history of the development of autism theories, with it comes other theorists who’ve studied autism so you read it from the pretext of the theorists for that time. Some of it is actually pretty challenging and controversial (for then and now), and I don’t mean it in a good way either e.g. everyone highly praises Leo Kanner but if you look into his later work its gets super weird and horrible. The book also examines our understanding and notions of autism, currently, we are getting better at diagnosing children (I will include adults) on the autism spectrum due to major advancements in technology as well as science. I started reading it a few years ago and then stopped so I’m going to start again and carry on with it.

Apart from talking about food all the time (when all this eventually blows over and we return to some sort of normality), I’ve also taken up weaving which I started a few weeks ago and I’ve not looked back since.

From left to right: my first weave and the second image is one I made two weaves later!

I’m planning on buying a bigger loom from Etsy as I would like to have a go at making a larger weave for our living room. There are lots of kits on Etsy (just have a search for it) and most of them include yarn so you can get cracking on it. I really enjoy being hands on and practical again, the act of making something with your hands is super rewarding. I also can’t stop buying yarn as well…. please stop me! I need help with my yarn obsession.

In between weaving I bought a lovely embroidery kit from Cotton Clara and I’m so happy with my little rainbow banner 🌈🌈. It brings me so much joy every time I see it! I also bought my mum a kit and she was overjoyed with it (will be being her another one…).

I also wanted to get my hands on clay and make some ornaments/presents for people. I bought some air-dry clay from Hobbycraft plus lots of other bits and bobs, I have to say, I’m really pleased with the results. I made some moon ornaments using two types of clay as I wanted a marble effect. You can YouTube tutorials for all these things (hurrah for this!), or ask folks on Twitter or Instagram. I varnished the ornaments using some Fimo gloss varnish, once they were dry I made a garland using some twine I already had.

I love working from our loft space. During the evenings when the sun is setting, the light is incredibly beautiful and our view overlooks other houses on our street. There’s this warm fuzzy glow just as the sun is about to set.

My desk space overlooking our street in the evenings.

I’m going to end my post here. Are there any other crafts/hobbies/books you’ve picked up since the lockdown? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

Today I was supposed to be at The Nesbitt Centre for my volunteering work. Somehow, I had completely forgotten it was ‘Golden Week’, which means the students get to go out and do fun stuff. I wasn’t updated about it so I turned up at the centre and nobody was in! I spent about half an hour trying to get in contact with the co-ordinator so I decided to have a wander around Sheung Wan.

I had read about The Crafties from an article by Sassy Hong Kong (I love it by the way!), so I decided to check it out since I was around the area. I thought I would never bother with illustration as I assumed I wouldn’t have the time for it, funnily enough being here has inspired me to make new work.

The Crafties is a studio space, co-working space, shop; a place for creativeness. The space itself is lovely, homely and very cosy. Bearing in mind space in Hong Kong is a rarity so I was really taken aback when I walked in! My flat in Fanling is really small so sometimes it feels quite claustrophobic; not an environment you want to be working in especially if work space is limited. I was thinking about hiring out a desk for a day or so during the week, which is perfect as it’ll work around my work schedule.

Lots of lovely things for sale!

The Crafties sell craft supplies as well as handmade products by local artists and designers. They also hold regular workshops from screen printing, knitting classes to lantern making. I asked Sky, who runs The Crafties, about the screen printing workshops and she said that the guy who runs them can do private group workshops (by appointment of course). I really want to do some small runs of screen prints so if anyone wants to join me feel free to get in touch!

Loving the displays.

The perfect place for a meet-up and a coffee or two.

I also asked Sky about holding a pop-up exhibition as I’ve been looking into it and she said that it was do able; providing I give them a bit more information as I was really vague at that point. I think it would be really nice to have a solo exhibition before I leave Hong Kong (not long now, two months to go!)

This is what i’ve been doing today…my new sticker collection called the Super Happy Sticker Set (something I made up yesterday whilst procrastinating) which contains six random stickers (20mm x 20mm) and lots of sequins and kitschy beads so you can stick ’em around!!